A Toy & Model Shopping Bag. The Best Thing I’ve Found In Weeks…

I’m at The Dig right? So I’m there and I look over to my left and a dude that I’m fairly friendly with is using a Toy & Model shopping bag to hold his Dig findings…I was like, gobsmacked. I could not believe it.

If you aren’t from the area here, Sonoma County, Toy & Model was a small chain of Toy Stores here in the area. There were I believe 4 stores, one in The Coddingtown Mall, one in Montgomery Village, one at The Town and Country Center and one in Rohnert Park.

Toy & Model in Montgomery Village was the closest Toy Store to my house and was thus the one that I went to the most. It was a really great store. They had Action Figures and Models and Dungeons and Dragons dice…I loved that place…It was where I bought all of my Super Powers figures as well as my first set of D&D Dice.

I went there a lot. Like all the time. I loved that place so much and was super sad when the chain shut down. I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden they shuttered their stores and that was that. I never thought I’d have a part of it in my life again. How could I? It was 30 years ago.

Anyway dude has the bag and I just about fainted when I saw it. I immediately recognized it for what it was but man, I hadn’t seen one of these in years and really never ever thought that I would see one again. How could I? The store shut down forever ago and only the oldest of the Santa Rosa heads even remember that it existed. It’s sadly a distant memory.
I just did a sort of short/lazy web search in hopes of finding a picture of the store and found out if you enter a search for Toy & Model Santa Rosa all you get is pictures of that dude who runs the local Toy Shop that I’m not really that keen on. That’s practically a slap in the face to Toy & Model’s memory.

I’m hoping by writing this and sending it in to Vic Sage at The Retroist that maybe we can help to push these pics of the sack up to the top of Google Toy & Model searches…

Anyhow, I just couldn’t believe it. There it was in all of it’s yellow and brown glory. I had to have it so I strolled up to dude all dizzy and said “Can I have that bag?” He, having no attachment to it at all said “sure” and handed it over. Later I realized that I didn’t explain to him at all why I wanted it or what it meant to me. I just asked for it, took it and stumbled off. I wonder what he made of all that?

For real though, this is a great find. It’s not valuable, it’s not anything at all like that but it’s something really important, it’s something that shouldn’t exist.

It’s too fragile and too old and really too unimportant for someone to hold onto. Shopping bags get used for things like school lunches or to pick up dog mess when you’re out walking the hounds.. You don’t put them away for later.

Some folks do I guess, but they often wind up on Hoarders…

At any rate, However it managed to make it, I’m happy it did and I’m super happy that somehow it managed to make it to me who will put it away for safekeeping…

Hold on, gotta go, the phone is ringing. I think it’s the folks from Hoarders…